FINANCIAL FREEDOM! Those of us yearning to create a better life for ourselves strive to become financially free. There are several ways we can reach financially freedom; some involve luck and others involve dependence on others. However, there is a way that one can reach that plateau without relying on luck or direct help from others: TO BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS.

When you strive to become your own boss, you are taking your life into your own hands. Thus, there are several ways you can create a better life for yourself. The best way to start earning an income for yourself is ECOMMERCE. Why not? If you have a computer and internet access (where millions of people access daily), you have the initial tools to start earning online income. Once you create (or discover) a product or service you can market, you are on your way to financial freedom. Welcome to the world of INTERNET MARKETING.

For those who are familiar with internet marketing, you may find opportunities that tell you that you can “make money overnight” or they may tell you how easy it is to start earning $10k per month. Also, some of these opportunities will tell you that it’s “free” to start making money online. I want to discuss some of the misconceptions you may hear about Internet Marketing, and the truths about each of these misconceptions. Before I get into these misconceptions, I will illustrate an example of a misconception that I faced years ago when I was looking for a business opportunity.

The year was 1987, and I was a sophomore at Howard University in Washington, DC. At the time, my mother was paying some of my tuition. I received the rest from financial aid. I know it was hard on my mother to pay for my college education, so I wanted to find a way to help her with those expenses. After all, I ultimately wanted to be responsible for my own college education.

I am not able to remember where I saw the opportunity, but it was an ad that says MAKE MONEY BY STUFFING ENVELOPES. Of course at the time, the Internet was not available to the general public, so I had to send for the information via mail. About a week later, I received a letter in the mail. I started reading the letter, getting excited about the possibilities of making good money. I remembered some of the things that were mentioned in the letter:

First, it mentioned how easy it is to make money stuffing envelopes, and to get paid for it. Secondly, it would ask: HOW MANY ENVELOPES CAN YOU STUFF PER MONTH? 10? 50? 100? 300? Reading this, my excitement grew. “YES, I can stuff 300 envelopes or more.”

The next thing that the letter focused on is the amount of money you can make. I don’t exactly remember the amount, but the amount was in the ballpark of $2k to $5k per month.

The bottom line is… the letter focused on how much much you can make, which would get anyone excited about signing up. At the end of the letter, there was a price of about $24.95, which you would have to pay in order to start stuffing envelopes. I paid the fee, then sent off my order form. I was thinking to myself… not only will I be able to pay for my own college expenses, but I will be able to do some Christmas shopping during the holiday season.

When I got the report and I read it, my excitement suddenly turned to disappointment. After reading this report, I found out that I had to place ads in order to solicit others who want to stuff envelopes, then I would have to send interested parties the same letter I received previously, thus the term “Stuffing Envelopes”. In the report, it was suggested to place an ad in the National Inquirer. When I bought the National Inquirer, you wouldn’t believe how many STUFFING ENVELOPES ads I saw. There were HUNDREDS of ads. UGGHHH!!!!!

The stuffing envelope scheme was an example of a chain letter scam. Such tactics would be illegal in this day and age, but at that time, there were quite a few of these business scams. Deception is the name of the game with these opportunities. You convince whomever is reading your letter how much money they can make without discussing the details, put a price on it, and after the prospects pay, you reveal the truth about what is offered. Unfortunately, many business opportunities today use the same tactics. Many of them tell you what you want to hear as far as making a lot of money, and they tell you how easy it is to make that money. After you pay the fee, or opt in to receive emails, you get the truth about the opportunity. In my opinion, this deception is one of the reasons why many people who want to become Internet Marketers fail before they can get started. When a person who is striving to become his/her own boss comes across a business opportunity that deceives them, thus saying one thing, then after you pay or opt in, saying something else, that can be discouraging to say the least.

Below, I listed 6 misconceptions about internet marketing, followed by the truths that accompany these misconceptions.

MISCONCEPTION #1: YOU CAN MAKE MONEY OVERNIGHT

The Misconception: This is probably the number one misconception one hears about Internet Marketing. Believe it or not, there are business opportunities out there that claim that you can make money “overnight”. When they say this, they don’t mean that you can literally make money overnight, but you can make it quickly.

The Truth: There are several ways you can make money overnight: 1) winning the lottery, 2) winning big at the casinos, 3) winning by betting on sports, and 4) Obtaining money from an inheritance. As far as making money overnight in internet marketing; that is, if you’re starting from scratch, it just doesn’t happen. No one goes from rags to riches overnight with internet marketing. The truth is, making money as an Internet Marketer is a slow and methodical process. Even our most prominent Internet Marketers will tell you that it took months, perhaps years before they even made any serious cash.

MISCONCEPTION #2: YOU CANNOT MAKE MONEY ONLINE

The Misconception: Before the Internet was available to the public, there were a lot of pyramid schemes and business practices that would be illegal today. Just the same, many people believe that most of the business opportunities online are not legitimate, thus making money online is nothing more than a fantasy.

The Truth: There are legitimate business opportunities online that can provide a nice income for you. As with any business venture, whether it’s online or otherwise, there are procedures you must follow if you want to be successful. In other words, you must treat your online business as you would any mom-and-pop store; you will have to build it, meaning that you will have to work! With time, (and with a little investment), you can make a substantial online income for yourself.

MISCONCEPTION #3: FREE… FREE… EVERYTHING’S FREE!!!!

The Misconception: When it comes to Internet Marketing, the one word you will see with most business opportunities is the word FREE. Some of these opportunities will claim that they can help you make money online, and they can do it for free.

The Truth: You will not be able to make $10k per month with an opportunity you received absolutely free. Many of these business opportunities will tell you that you can make a substantial income without coming out of your pocket, but only after you “opt in” (which means you signed up to receive future emails from them), you will then receive emails in which they will “upsell” to persuade you to pay for an offer in order to make money with the opportunity. The fact is, no business opportunity will make money by giving you something 100% free. Think about it. If you could earn $10k a month without spending a dime of your money, then there would be more successful Internet Marketers in the business.

MISCONCEPTION #4: “YOU CAN MAKE $1000 IN JUST 7 DAYS”

The Misconception: You’ve probably seen opportunities that claim that you can make a certain amount of money within a certain amount of time. Personally, I have seen videos in which people claim that they made over $1000 in one week after starting the opportunity.

The Truth: It may be possible for a seasoned Internet Marketer, who already has already built a business relationship with a large number of people (i.e. a large list of email subscribers) to start a new business opportunity and rake in at least a thousand dollars in a week. It could be possible to make that amount of money if you pay a lot of $$$ for advertising. In general, no one, and I mean NO ONE who is inexperienced in internet marketing will be able to generate that amount of cash in their first 7 days of promoting the business. The fact to the matter is, many of these business opportunities tend to exaggerate the earnings to persuade you to sign up. Any legitimate business should be telling you more about the opportunity itself and less about the money you could make.

MISCONCEPTION #5: “IT IS SO SIMPLE, EVEN A TEN-YEAR OLD CAN DO IT”

The Misconception: When a business opportunity says a ten-year old can work the business, this is telling you that you don’t have to put in a lot of effort to make money.

The Truth: If this statement were true, there would be far more Internet Marketers out there making a substantial income online. If a business opportunity was that simple, you wouldn’t have to go to college for 4 years to work for a Bachelor’s Degree. All you would have to do is to promote this business to make money. The truth is, no business opportunity is “simple”. You still will have to devote a lot of time and effort (and/or money) to make it grow and to start earning income.

MISCONCEPTION #6: “YOUR WEBSITE WILL BE SEEN BY THOUSANDS”

The Misconception: There are systems out there that claim they can help you receive a lot of traffic to your website or affiliate link.

The Truth: This is another exaggeration to get you to opt in or buy into their system. What they don’t tell you is that in order to get thousands of views to your website, you will have to pay… and even when you pay, it’s not guaranteed that you will get that many views on your website. Also, the views that you may get could be from other Internet Marketers who are looking to promote their website or affiliate link. The only true way of increasing traffic to your website is to pay for advertising.

Many of these business opportunities and systems will exaggerate or deceive you with their offers in order to get you to pay or opt in to their program. As an Internet Marketer, you should be aware that nothing will come easy as far as building a $10k per month enterprise. As with any business opportunity, you will have to earn your way to success, by putting in the time and effort to make the business grow. Utilizing the right tools, you will be successful.